I bought a new, cheap and maybe nasty fixed gear bike. They were only in sizes 54cm and 56cm, so I had to go for 56cm, even though my road bike is 61cm and I'm 186cm. My first few skidding attempts today failed miserably, because I could not get my weight on the front wheel. I now removed all spacers and lifted my saddle a few inches.

Can I learn to skid if my front leg is below the steering bar when trying to lock my legs? How can I get my legs fixed to resist the pedal power?

3 Answers
3

Don't shove your legs against the steering bar. Not only can this cause an injury, but it immobilizes you slightly and gives you a lot less control overall. For that moment your leg(s) are pinned you can't do very much and if you start to tumble it's going to be bad.

The wet pavement advice is the best. Learn to hop it and get the skid started, but never lock your legs on anything.

Particularly when you're learning to do a skid stop, you need to hop your back wheel off the ground momentarily and then lock your back leg while your wheel is not in contact with the road. Then when your wheel hits the road again, it will skid. You shouldn't need to jam it anywhere against your bike, I'd suggest this is probably a bit dangerous.

It's good to practice on wet roads. It's much easier to get the skid started when grip is reduced.

I never removed the brakes and I mostly use then. Skidding for me is not about halting quickly, but just for playing around to get a better feeling for bikes. I now managed a short skid on a really clean surface, but shoved both legs against the stearing bar. Managing it sitting would be nicer though :-)
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Franz KafkaAug 2 '12 at 20:51